


the boy in the blue sweater

by kainat



Category: GOT7, JJ Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, OH RIGHT some itty bitty depictions of non-graphic violence, conceitedly, i just love the Softness™ it has, i love it tbh ??, idk man, not even like, this is so soft in so many ways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2018-10-28 14:47:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10833459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kainat/pseuds/kainat
Summary: "jaebum's mind buzzed with the boys face, how his sweater seemed to be made just for him, catching all the curves on his body, and how everything about him just screamed the wordssoft."(i suck @ summaries please excuse me)





	1. Chapter 1

jaebum’s junior year in college was terrible. it was no surprise. his parents had divorced that year, and, in being the only child, getting caught in custody battles, despite jaebum being old enough to provide for himself (most of the time). his parents demanded him to come home to pack his things from his childhood home, taking him out of school for a month. jaebum’s grades dropped drastically, and jaebum’s long time boyfriend, sungjin, had broken up with him and moved to the us to pursue his music career outside of korea. jaebum felt so lost and broken having almost no one left in his most inner circle to talk to. nights were longer, days lagged on, food got less and less appetizing, regular activities that jaebum did felt boring and meaningless.

 

_ hyung, i miss you.  _ jaebum wrote in a text to sungjin. his heart thumped in his chest as he typed it out and hit send.

 

_ jaebum, it’s 3am here. i get that your life is shitty. i miss korea. everyone misses something. go write a song about it, for all i care. _

 

jaebum stared, in awe, at the text he read with his own two eyes. he kept reading it over, again and again and again, his eyes sticking to the last line. he remembered all the songs sungjin would write, for days on end he would sit in his apartment with jaebum, writing songs and having jaebum work out the melodies. he never thought of it as a method of catharsis. sungjin tended to keep his emotions bottled up until the bottle would tip on its side, everything all spilling out at once.

 

he would be crying, screaming, hitting things, sometimes breaking things, thrashing as jaebum tried to calm him down, sometimes crying so hard he would vomit. then would usually pass out a few minutes later.

 

jaebum never saw him writing any lyrics that were sad, save that sungjin only showed him the songs he wrote about jaebum. but there was a difference between sungjin showing him songs, and jaebum, well, snooping around in sungjin’s songwriting notebooks.

 

jaebum sat on the floor, with a synth beside him, as he began writing the first of many sad love songs.

 

\-----------

 

jaebum’s senior year began splendid, contrasting from the previous year that he had endured. he only went home for a handful of weeks, spending the rest of the time to do volunteer work with dance and music programs in different schools around korea. jaebum liked to think that that was one of the happiest times of his life so far.

 

not only were his grades good, and his parents divorce stayed more and more out of his life, but new transfer students came to jaebum’s university. jaebum had offered to guide around the new transfers in his grade, hoping, but more like begging, for one of them to be cute  _ and  _ into guys or at least know someone who is. but that’s the story of how jaebum met mark and brian.

 

mark was quiet, only ever speaking when he wanted to ask jaebum a question, but brian opened up to jaebum as if he’d known him all his life. mark was taiwanese-american and explained that his family had moved to korea because of his parent’s jobs, and brian explained he was originally korean but moved to canada for high school. mark said he’d be double majoring, but not particularly in what, and brian said he was doing business administration. 

 

they all hung out together, mark’s american accent still muddying up his words, and sometimes forgetting words and needing to ask brian. and if mark couldn’t convey something, brian would tell jaebum for him. 

 

somehow, and jaebum didn’t ask how, mark knew the korean word for gay, and all the slang, positive or negative, associated with being gay. so when jaebum mumbled the words out of his mouth, exposing himself to mark and brian, mark looked directly at him and told him it was fine. at first, jaebum wasn’t sure if he understood. so he turned to brian, asking for what it was in english. mark shushed jaebum, telling him he knew what it meant, and that he didn’t misunderstand. and again, told him that it was fine.

 

\-------

 

when jaebum’s awful performance lab professor gave his class projects to learn to perform a great solo piece on the instrument of their studies, jaebum was less than thrilled. it meant hours of filing through pieces, then more hours practicing, only to get criticized for extremely minor details. but of course, for jaebum’s instrument of choice, the piano, it was no problem trying to find a famed piano solo to perform.

 

jaebum, naturally, retreated to the music hall’s practice rooms to sort through and see what he liked. after playing random bits of almost 10 pieces, he took a break and walked outside his practice room, stealing crappy coffee from the teachers lounge.

 

“excuse me, where’d you get that coffee?” a voice behind jaebum said.

 

jaebum turned to a boy in a blue sweater, his facial features soft and hair covering his forehead until he ran his fingers through it, then they flapped back down to his forehead.

 

“i’m sorry if i startled you, i feel like i’ve been here forever and not even fresh air is helping me,” the boy in the blue sweater cracked a friendly smile.

 

jaebum stuttered out his words. “i, i, uh….. got it… well, stole it really…. from the teachers lounge,” jaebum took a nervous sip. “no one’s in there after 4, so i just swipe it and go.”

 

the boy nodded. “then do you know where the nearest coffee shop is? like, from here? i’m a new transfer, so i don’t know the area.”

 

jaebum smiled. “i had two transfers shadowing me, i don’t mind. if you go out the southwest doors, walk to the street, go one block, then turn left there’s a shop on that block. they even give a student discount.”

 

the boy nodded, mentally jotting down all the information. “okay, thanks! you can tell me more about campus when i get back, if you want.”

 

jaebum took another nervous sip, nodding as the boy ran off to follow the instructions jaebum gave him. after the boy was out of jaebum’s eyeshot, jaebum sprinted back to his practice room and frantically went through pieces, his mind buzzing with the boys face, how the sweater seemed to be made just for him, catching all the curves on his body, how everything about him just screamed the words  _ soft _ .

 

staying locked in his practice room and unable to focus on his solo piece, jaebum pulled out a notebook and started jotting down some words that he hoped would one day become a song about this beautiful boy in a blue sweater.

 

\----------

 

the next time jaebum saw the boy was a week later. jaebum tended to hang around the practice rooms a few times a week, but never stumbled on the boy until the next friday, exactly a week after jaebum had first seen him. 

 

the boy wore the same sweater again, jaebum duly noting it  _ was  _ cold both outside and inside the music hall. when he spotted jaebum out of the corner of his eye, he couldn’t help but strut up to him.

 

“hey, last week you disappeared. what happened?” the boy’s mouth turned to a sad frown, his eyebrows scrunching together.

 

jaebum’s palms almost immediately started sweating. “i, uh… a friend called and said he needed help with moving stuff in his apartment since he’s studying abroad-”

 

“where’s he going?” the boy interrupted, taking subtle note that jaebum was lying.

 

“europe. he’s going to different cities and studying each places specific famous violin and orchestral works.” jaebum’s lie nearly rolled off his tongue, although he did have a friend who was doing the european orchestral exchange, he just didn’t actually ask him to help move out of his apartment.

 

the boy nodded his head. “sounds fun. i wish i was a music major. but i guess what i’m in is my next best choice.”

 

jaebum cocked his head slightly. “what’s your major?”

 

“double major actually- performance and literature. you?” 

 

“music. piano performance and music education, if you want to be specific.”

 

the boy nodded, taking in the information. “you don’t really look like the piano type,” he looked up and down at jaebum’s outfit, mostly composed of black, with the exception of a dark blue shirt that he wore underneath a black jacket, with black jeans. “you don’t really strike me as… any major honestly. maybe art; i think you could fit in with the art crowd.”

 

“well, i’m not. i’m a music major,” jaebum started getting irritated. the way he dressed didn’t give anyone any traits about him, except for the fact that he liked wearing black. it couldn’t determine his age, his major, or whether he was nice and friendly or cold and mean; nor could it determine his sexuality.

 

“okay,” the boy sensed jaebum getting irritated, putting on a softer voice. “would you want to come get coffee with me? i was about to go.”

 

jaebum shrugged. “normally i’d say i’m fine with the shitty teacher’s lounge coffee, but i guess i could go with you for once.”

 

the boy giggled, smiling at jaebum, making his heart skip multiple beats.

  
  


when the two had gotten their drinks at the coffee house, which the boy kindly paid for, he invited jaebum to sit and chat for a bit. jaebum was reluctant, wanting to go back to the hall and practice his solo, but sat down anyway.

 

“what grade are you in?” jaebum asked as the boy sipped on his coffee.

 

“i’m a junior. you?”

 

“senior.”

 

the boy nodded again, taking another sip. “if you’re wondering, i’m always hanging out in the practice rooms because i like it. people are there, but they don’t say hi to you much since they’re obviously working on stuff.”

 

jaebum nodded. “i like it there too. it reminds me of my childhood.”

 

the boy looked at him. “how so?”

 

sipping his coffee, jaebum started. “my parents weren’t home much when i was younger, but they would have a babysitter come and take care of me. my babysitter was like an older sister i’d never had, and she was the one who inspired me to play piano, and even taught me a bit. but when she wasn’t there, the house would be quiet. if i ever felt lonely, i could always play what my babysitter had taught me and feel better. then i started taking lessons, and my teachers would tell me i was really good.”

 

the boy absorbed all of the information that jaebum was throwing at him, just as he did when they first met and jaebum had given him the direction to the very coffee shop they were standing in now.

 

“then my babysitter died in a car accident,” jaebum gripped his cup of coffee as he remembered the sadness that followed the news that she had died. “she loved playing piano, enough so she started to teach me it when i was young. so i decided, after that, that i would major in music.”

 

the boy nodded. “it was like that for me, too. i had never known what i wanted to do until my second to last year in school, when i auditioned for my school’s play and got in. everything about the production seemed so perfect, and so i did more and more shows. eventually i had done enough plays and musicals that it dawned on me that i loved being on stage and performing for people.” the boy sighed and looked down at his coffee.

 

“let me guess. your parents weren’t thrilled with the idea of you becoming a performer,” jaebum said.

 

the boy looked up to jaebum, appearing slightly stunned. “yeah, how did you know?”

 

jaebum laughed. “almost everyone goes through that with their parents at some point. i know i definitely did.”

 

just then, jaebum got a text on his phone from brian, asking if he wanted to hang out with him and mark that night for dinner. jaebum replied that he wasn’t sure if he would finish his work before the time they wanted to go out, and looked back up to the boy.

 

“i have to go back, last minute arrangements-” jaebum stopped himself in the middle of his sentence. “would you… like to come with us?” 

 

the boy shook his head. “it’s okay. i have something to do tonight as well. don’t worry about it.”

 

jaebum nodded, wishing, secretly, the boy could’ve tagged along. maybe he knows mark, and mark could hook them up together.

 

the boy looked at his watch. “it’s late. we’ve been here almost an hour! we should head back now.”

 

jaebum nodded again, noticing that his coffee was nearly empty, and promptly chugging the rest of it before chucking it in the trash and walking back to campus.

  
  
  


“so, jaebum,” mark piped up while waiting for their food to come. “i heard you’ve caught some eyes.”

 

jaebum looked at him, confused. “what?”

 

mark laughed. “some guy. i overheard him talking about how hot you are somewhere on campus the other day,” mark imitated what he had heard. “' _ there was a guy, about my height, dressed in all black. he came out of nowhere like a grim reaper, and i nearly jumped out of my skin. he told me where the nearest coffee shop was. the way he did it was so cool, his voice sounded so deep and mysterious.’  _ so, jaebum, what do you think?”

 

brian laughed, looking at jaebum for a second. “you do look like a grim reaper. especially when you wear all black.”

 

jaebum grumbled on the outside, but on the inside his heart was melting for the boy with the blue sweater. “i think that your korean’s gotten better since you came here, considering i can  _ sadly  _ understand every word you said.”

 

“oh, and another thing…” mark pulled out a slip of paper. “i got his number for you.”

 

jaebum stared at the piece of paper mark held in his hands. “i don’t want it.”

 

brian looked at jaebum. “you hesitated. yes, you do,” he then took the paper out of mark’s hand, giving it to jaebum.

 

jaebum reluctantly put paper into his pocket, deciding to look at it later.

 

as their food arrived to their table, jaebum was able to get the conversation back on other things besides the boy, although his mind stayed on him and his number that sat just inside his jacket pocket.

  
  


as the weeks passed by, jaebum’s teachers teased at a midterm recital concert. jaebum’s heart dropped, knowing that that meant hours upon hours of practicing, nights of getting no sleep, working his pieces to perfection, yet somehow still getting told he’s doing something wrong, or that his fingers ‘aren’t playing with enough emotion’. 

 

as jaebum’s fingers cramped and burned during practices, his mind would float to the boy who roamed the halls of the practice rooms, who called him cool, and deep, and mysterious.

 

often times, jaebum found himself falling asleep in the practice rooms, dreaming of none other than the boy. occasionally of sungjin, but those dreams were mostly dismissed from jaebum’s memory.

  
sometimes, even, as jaebum woke from his dream-filled naps, he would write out lyrics that came to mind about the boy in the blue sweater.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> to the boy in the blue sweater. from the boy in the black one. come to my recital?

_ i’ll never have the confidence to talk to him again. he probably regrets talking to me. now that he knows i’m gay…  _

 

an alert on jinyoung’s cell phone rang in, pulling jinyoung out of a crying session.

 

_ “hey, if you’re up, check out the school’s radio station. i put in a special song for you.” _

 

jinyoung nervously opened his laptop, flipping through some school emails before finding the site for the radio station’s stream. his heart beat out of his chest as he listened to a random rock song, tears still falling from his eyes and rolling down his cheeks.

 

as the song ended, the dj came back on the air, talking about the band that just had their song on.

 

_ “ _ this is a new song by local music major, senior im jaebum, who writes about this song: ‘to the boy in the blue sweater. from the boy in the black one. come to my recital?’ _ ” _

 

jinyoung knew immediately who im jaebum was, remembering the quiet senior that had showed him the coffee shop by the practice halls. he wiped his tears, listening to the music as it started.

 

_ i’m tired again today, i see a missed call _

_ and spread out on my bed, i droop and fall asleep… _

 

_ dreaming of you tonight, _

_ every night i do, about the two of us… _

 

_ deep sleeping now, inside the fuzzy screen _

_ i see you waving, _

_ i see that i’m smiling in the dream _

_ i think i like you _

 

_ when i get inside the house, i run and go on the bed _

_ i don’t even look at the phone _

_ the moment my eyes close _

_ i see the back of you in my dream _

_ even when bad things happened all day _

_ i see you in my dream tonight _

_ i secretly close my eyes and smile _

_ you’re probably dreaming about me too… _

 

_ dreaming of you tonight, _

_ every night i do, about the two of us… _

  
  


as days past, though jinyoung was deathly afraid of seeing jaebum again, he tried his hardest to get information on the recital.

 

jinyoung stared at his phone, open with the messages from an unknown number that told him to listen to the radio that one night. as he thought about jaebum, his phone rang with a message.

 

_ well, are you coming? _

 

jinyoungs heart skipped a beat reading the text. he quickly replied,  _ yes, but i don't know when or where it is. _ his heart continued to do all kinds of things while waiting for a reply.

 

_ tomorrow. our coffee shop. _

 

jinyoung looked at the message, confused. there was no piano in the coffee shop, nor was there room for one. 

  
  


“recital, jaebum? i don’t see a piano.”

 

“that’s because i’m going to  _ recite _ a few pickup lines. maybe directions to this coffee shop, too, and see if it’ll garner the same reaction it did when we first met,” jaebum teased. “i wonder if i’ll still be as cool and mysterious?”

 

jinyoung’s face turned into a blooming rose, redness spreading from his cheeks to his ears. “that… that was your friend? i thought he was- nevermind.”

 

“yeah, mark’s a friend. what, did you flirt with him?”

 

jinyoung’s face got even redder, however possible. “no- well, yes. i flirted with him some because he asked for my number and then when he left, one of my friends told me he was homophobic and probably wanted to blackmail me or something and i-” jinyoung cut himself off as he realized he was starting to ramble. “i… i still like you though. like, a lot.”

 

“good, because i think you’re pretty cute,” jaebum chuckled. “and i would’ve beaten up mark if he had even  _ tried  _ to lay anything more than a platonic finger on you.” jinyoung’s eyes briefly glinted with fear. “i’m just joking. let’s get to know each other more, yeah? maybe we should start from the beginning?”

 

jinyoung nodded, and extended a hand. “park jinyoung, performance and literature double major, junior.” 

  
jaebum extended his hand and shook jinyoungs. “im jaebum, piano performance and music education double major, senior. and i think we’ve met before, because you look  _ just  _ like my next boyfriend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy new year everybody!!!! sorry that this is so short !!!! im kind of at a loss for what to put in this chapter but who knows maybe ill come back later and add some more to it ,,, but there is a final chapter after this which im plannign to be longer! 
> 
> also the song i used is dreamin by got7 which was written in part by jaebum huhuhuhuhuhuhu he is such a Soft boi ... anyway i hope you all enjoy this and have a wonderful 2018!!!
> 
> kudos and comments are always appreciated, and thank u for reading!!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "go eat a dick, sungjin."

“jaebum-ah… i’m sorry. i knew i broke your heart when i left for america. i knew what you were going through and didn’t bother to think about what it would do to you. i was so driven to go, and so selfish…. jaebum, i really want to say i’m sorry. from the bottom of my heart. i hope you’ll give me a second chance, to make things right-”

 

“go eat a dick, sungjin.”

 

“jaebum, please-”

 

“i’m happy now. happier than i ever would’ve been with you. you never let me see your full self. instead you showed me the parts of you that you wanted me to see. and that isn’t what trust and honesty in a relationship is. so fuck off.”

 

jaebum ended the call and slammed the phone down.

 

* * *

 

“jaebum!” a cheerful voice rang out to jaebum from behind him as he walked through the practice room halls. jaebum turned to see jinyoung, running at full speed, with a giant smile across his face, toward jaebum.

 

jaebum turned just as jinyoung came crashing into him, enveloping him in a gigantic hug.

 

“congratulations, hyung! i can’t believe you’re graduating today!” jinyoung cheerfully looked into jaebum’s eyes while his fingers fiddled around with his shirt. 

 

jaebum gripped jinyoung’s waist, pressing his fingers deeper into his sides. “i can’t either. i can’t believe the last time we’ll see each other as students here is in the same place we saw each other for the first time.”

 

jinyoung smiled at jaebum’s words, and pulled him in for another hug. as they pulled away, jinyoung gave jaebum a peck on the cheek, a hand brushing against jaebum’s jaw.

 

“i’m really proud of you, you know that?” jinyoung said to him, to which jaebum broke a smile and nodded.

 

“you do tell me that a lot, but every time you say it, it just means so much more than if anyone else said it.” 

 

jinyoung smiled at jaebum’s words, but his smile eventually fell as he seemed to remember something.

 

“babe? what’s wrong?” jaebum asked, noticing jinyoung’s sudden scowl.

 

“i’m just… realizing that you won’t be a student here anymore. so you’ll probably move away. and i’ll just have to wait for you to come back into my life when i’m older and hopefully working.”

 

jaebum laughed. “i’m not going anywhere. i’m staying in the area and freelancing until you graduate; i already have a gig playing piano for a few weeks over the summer. and once you graduate, we’ll move wherever you need to go and i’ll just freelance there. i would never leave you, jinyoung.”

 

jinyoung’s face broke into a smile again, with tears brimming his eyes. “i love you, jaebum.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooooo this is the end of the boy in the blue sweater!! its a brief end, but jaebum gets his revenge and also graduates and makes jinyoung's heart melt a little.
> 
> thank you to everyone who's read this fic, and those who've felt me kudos/comments! it really warms my heart!! and thank you all for being on this fun little fic writing journey! i have another jjp fic that i am slowly cranking out and might post soon-ish..... i'm also thinking of doing a few spinoffs of this series as well, but i don't know for sure yet!
> 
> i hope you enjoyed! as always, kudos and/or comments are always appreciated! and once again, thank you for reading!!

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this when i was very VERY soft and sleepy. anyways this gets shitty @ times bc i didnt write this in one sitting so yEET pls enjoy anyways!!!!!! also thank u to bobby for cheering me on and helping me figure out mark's major ,,,,, i love u so mcuH
> 
> kudos and comments are always appreciated!!!


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